I've just started this one and so far I agree with what you all have said about the magic, it seems out of place, I'm not finding it believable. But what concerns me now is I think it has one of my pet peeves - the heroine that lets her family walk all over her. So I'm wondering, does she stand up to her sister and let her have it? Because otherwise I'm just gonna stop right now. Give me a big happy family over this rotten treatment of each other any day!

Linda_________________"The Bookshop has a thousand books, all colors, hues and tinges, and every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges." ~ Nancy Byrd Turner

But what concerns me now is I think it has one of my pet peeves - the heroine that lets her family walk all over her. So I'm wondering, does she stand up to her sister and let her have it? Because otherwise I'm just gonna stop right now. Give me a big happy family over this rotten treatment of each other any day!

Linda

She has a discussion with her sister but I wouldn't say she lets her have it. Sort of wimped out. But that's my opinion.

I agree with LeeB about wimping out with the discussion with her sister. That was the primary reason for the breakup--because of her sister's involvement. There was a resolve of sorts with her, but I felt it was glossed over.

But what concerns me now is I think it has one of my pet peeves - the heroine that lets her family walk all over her. So I'm wondering, does she stand up to her sister and let her have it? Because otherwise I'm just gonna stop right now. Give me a big happy family over this rotten treatment of each other any day!

Linda

She has a discussion with her sister but I wouldn't say she lets her have it. Sort of wimped out. But that's my opinion.

I really felt Lucy's side in the conversations with and about her sister until the last one. Up until then, I completely got why she didn't get into it more with her. There was just no point to it. Alice was just so self-centered that it would have been like talking to the wall and only have zapped Lucy's energy. The last one, though, I didn't get.

While I don't see any reason for including magic (and then it's Sam too! couldn't they just have both felt passionate about their work and bonded over that?!), I liked the book overall. It flowed really well and I loved how Lucy didn't just get over Kevin and fall in love with Sam over two weeks or something. The condensed timeline in romances is something I trouble accepting a lot of the time, so I really appreciated the sense of time passing.

Truly, much better than what I expected since Matt's story was so underwhelming, that I didn't really remember much about these characters at all and I found them all intriguing here. A plus side is that neither Matt's story with Maggie, nor Alex's future romance with Zoe take up much time. In fact, before Alex's scene with Zoe, I had Justine pegged for him. He seemed like a guy in need of a swift kick to the ass (or groin) that she can deliver. Still, the thing with Duane towards the end of the book had me intrigued enough to hope that they'll manage to work it out.

One of the things I loved (and certainly didn't remember from the previous book) is Sam's special blend of all-male and all-geek. His shirts were just awesome. And Lucy's teasing about geek love speak was just so spot on. I snickered out loud at that part.

I'm sorry we didn't get more insight into Lucy's parents. They were lame when it came to Alice - although I felt the overindulging was more on Mom's part, but Dad certainly didn't put up much of a fight - but their story was kind of heartbreaking and could have been interesting to delve into deeper.

One further thing I loved is the epilogue. SPOILERS: She actually went to New York and he supported and encouraged her! They made a decision and were dedicated enough to make it work! It's just so awesome that it never came down to the choice between him and working on her art.

I just finished this book and it was quite readable, but didn't seem to have much depth. Maybe I'd characterize it as a bathtub read. Perhaps it's unfair, but I can't help comparing this contemporary series unfavorably with her Texas series, which seemed much more substantial.

And as another poster mentioned, the magic was a bit "twee". I personally don't mind a little bit of magic in my contemporaries, but in this instance it felt too heavy handed. To have glass turning into bats and butterflies is, IMHO, just silly. I can more easily support Sam's affinity with his plants, which felt much more natural to me. Despite my nitpicks I will pick up Alex's book from the library when it comes out. (And yes, I too can more easily read about ghosts rather than flying glass!)

I also liked the geeky T-shirts, but thought the heroine was a little too clueless about several of them that referred to popular culture.
I would call RR a light paranormal due to the innate magic of the h/h, since it doesn't have the vampires, fae, shifters, demons, spellcasters, etc. of a full-blown paranormal.
I a backwards way, the magic in RR brought to mind the Liad series by Lee & Miller. In the Liad books (interstellar SF adventures), characters are very impressed/surprised by any magic, even things that would be minor magic in a fantasy setting. In RR, the h/h take their personal magic for granted even though some of it would be a big deal in a fantasy setting. I may be wrong, but I suspect that in most systems of magic creating life is a very big deal, yet here it is taken for granted. I saw the window as showing synergy of the magic of both h & h. She infused it with her magic while creating it, which reacted with his magic after it was installed to change a night image to day and growing things.